Dunklin Co. rips Cape 12-4

~ Ford & Sons struggled with its pitching and defense.

Tuesday wasn't Cape Girardeau Ford & Son's night.

Even something as basic as the first baseman throwing the ball back to the pitcher turned ugly as Dunklin County roughed up Cape 12-4 in their American Legion District 14 tournament contest at Capaha Field.

Dunklin County scored seven runs in the seventh inning to take command of the ballgame. It pushed across the runs with four hits, four walks and two Cape errors. One of the runs scored when Cape's first baseman tried to return the ball to the pitcher but the ball ended up squirting all the way to the Cape dugout.

Dunklin County overpowered Cape's flamethrower, Brad LaBruyere, who is headed to Southeast Missouri State to play baseball in the fall. Cape's ace sailed through the first three innings before running into trouble in the next four innings.

Dunklin second baseman Sam Bader, left, tried to complete a double play over Cape's Matt Hester on Tuesday, July 24, 2007, at Capaha Park. (Kit Doyle)

"We wanted to get him over 120 pitches by the sixth inning," Dunklin County coach Jamie Johnson said. "That was our goal and we got him there. We just hit the baseball tonight, but that was our strategy right from the get-go."

LaBruyere allowed six runs on 11 hits. He struck out seven and walked five. He allowed at least one run in the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh innings.

"This is the third time we saw him," said Dunklin County's Jeremy Patton, who had three hits and knocked in two runs "He's a real great pitcher. We knew coming in he had a good fastball and good curveball. We sat on the fastball. We made him throw the fastball."

Cape planned to ride LaBruyere as long as possible, but went to its bullpen after he walked three batters in the seventh.

"He battled and did a good job," Cape assistant coach Ryan Essex said of LaBruyere. "He's done a good job for us all year."

Dunklin County looked poised to invoke the mercy rule after seven inning when it took a 12-2 lead after 6 1/2 innings, but Cape answered with two runs in its half of the seventh to extend the game. Both runs came with two outs. Garrett Stevens walked, then scored on Matt Hester's triple down the right-field line to cut Dunklin County's lead to nine runs. Hester came in to score when Cody Tellor reached on an error.

Cape's offense started well as it pushed across a run in the second and another one in the third. Plus it left three runners on base in those two innings. Zach Plott and LaBruyere drove in the early runs for Cape.

But Dunklin County starter Shane Branum settled down, allowing his offense to go to work against LaBruyere. Dunklin County tied the game at 2-2 in the fourth, scored one in the fifth and never looked back.

"[Branum] has thrown well for us all summer," Johnson said. "We're really happy with the way that he has come around for us this summer."

Branum went all nine innings, striking out six and walking one. He allowed six hits, but only two after the third inning.

Cape now faces an uphill road in the tournament. It faces Sikeston at 5 p.m. today in an elimination game. Sikeston lost 16-13 to Jackson on Monday night.

"We've got to scratch and claw," Essex said. "It's a tough road back now. It's all hands on deck from this point on."